Category: Parenting

Playing games is the most important activity for children to develop creative skills. It is a fact that games offer fun and entertainment. In this busy world, parents find less time to spend time with their children. They find it hard to balance their work at office as well as home schedules. But it is quiet essential that parents need to spend their quality time with their kids as your child also needs time with you to relax and play. This also helps to build strong family bonds, which can last for a lifetime.

Children enjoy playing which is enjoyable and spontaneous. They also can learn social and motor skills and also cognitive thinking. Researches proved that play helps in the brain development by stimulating the brain through the formation of connections between nerve cells. Board games are very popular which were actually meant to be pass time, but actually are healthy, nurturing the brains motor functions etc. There are some important board games for kids that children must play to develop in to a sharp and brilliant student. They are as follows:

Chess

Chess game is one of the excellent board games in the world. Although it is an ancient game, yet it is still increasingly popular and considered as a royal game. Chess game promotes imagination and creativity and as well as encourages a child to be inventive. It is also a game of entertainment and relaxation. Even the parents are encouraging their kids to join in chess learning classes. This is because it helps in developing scientific way of thinking, explores new ideas, and helps to interact with other people.

Monopoly

Monopoly is the most popular board game since 1935. It is quiet interesting game that may be dependent on both luck and strategy. It offers hours of fun and entertainment and also teach you some valuable lessons such as risk assessment, time and diversification, which are the most useful tools for investing in this real world. There are different versions in this wonderful game that reach from young kids to all professionals.

Snakes & Ladders

It is a very popular game for children and is well-known as “Vaikunthapaali” or ““Moksha Patam”. It is another greatest game that helps a lot in improving the best educational skills. This game helps to learn some moral values. Children really enjoy playing this game.

Scrabble

Another classic board game which has diehard followers. It can be described as another interesting game which provides a lot of potential benefits. The major benefits of playing this game are improves the language, builds vocabulary, learn correct spellings and developing the skill of anagramming.

This is a wonderful strategy game that builds critical skills. The whole family spend can some fun time by playing this game. It is not only the game of fun and entertainment, but also promotes good mental health and social skills. Also, it helps for children to solve the complex math problems.

Common core standards in schools have become more rigorous over the past few years. Required tests have made the school year a busy time while teachers rush and struggle to prepare their students. Because of this recess is often getting cut out of a child’s day. Many parents and professionals are saying that the benefits from school recess range farther than just expelling pent-up energy, and that it should be required to be scheduled into their child’s day at school every day.

Unstructured free play with peers in the form of recess provides an educational experience all its own. On the playground children are able to develop their individual identity and personality traits as well as improve their self-esteem. Recess can be much more than play time and can improve not only a child’s self control but also their behavior, their concentration and their grades.

Concentration

In the classroom pent-up energy can result in poor concentration. Just 20 minutes of free play is enough to see the benefits of school recess. Children like to run and play, and when they are allowed to do just that, concentration levels will be better and more work and learning will ultimately get done inside the classroom.

Behavior

Most parents and teachers know that children have a lot of energy and they need to expel that energy in some way. If they don’t, that energy tends to be bottled up and eventually comes out by way of a meltdown or tantrum. School recess helps control a child’s behavior and allows them to enjoy the release and freedom of playing outside or in a gym. Most teachers find that when they allow kids to have recess during the day, their students act out far less and the need for discipline decreases.

The Real World

The classroom setting is very structured. It is designed this way to make sure learning is taking place and each student is getting the assistance he needs. When children venture out onto the playground or the gym, the real, more unstructured world begins. A child will encounter other kids who may not be so nice and they will need to learn how to deal with this kind of behavior. Physical challenges exist, like how to climb to the top of the monkey bars. These are things that a child will need to figure out on their own and it’s all part of early childhood development. When children learn to resolve conflict on their own in a play setting, this can ease the teacher’s burden. This ability to work things out without an adult’s help (which only gets easier as a child gets older) will transfer to the classroom and students may begin to work together better.

Social Skills

Learning social skills is just as important as the learning that occurs inside the classroom. Social skills, however, are not generally taught but rather must be developed on their own. When a child enters the playground during recess, factors come in to play such as: Whom will she play with? How will she approach another child? Children need to develop their social skills in order to make friends, and this is tough to do when sitting at a desk in a classroom.

In this century more and more children are sitting down in front of the television to watch a show or play a video game. Playtime at home and the benefits from school recess are important for a child’s growth. It may not seem important, but a child who is allowed to play each day will grow to be a far more high-functioning adult. A child who didn’t socialize enough when he was young may grow up to be more aggressive and less tolerant of others. Teachers and parents alike should reconsider the benefits of recess. A short amount of time set aside each day for fun can help ease the burden of the workload and increasingly longer school days. More and more pressure seems to be placed on children and fewer adults realize the importance of a kid just being a kid sometimes. Classroom learning, extra-curricular activities and homework are all necessities for raising an intelligent participant in society, but sometimes, recess and free play are just as important.

For some parents, the simple idiom of money doesnt grow on trees sums up the total of what needs to be said when it comes to money matters and children. On the other hand, while the pithy saying does temporarily prevent a purchase, it hardly teaches children financial responsibility.

With hundreds of thousands of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 declaring bankruptcy, or saddled by student and credit card loans before they even graduate college, it is imperative that parents teach their children responsible money management skills. Instilling sound money practices in your children is one of life’s most important lessons—and it is an education that cannot be learned in school and is never too early to learn.

Start teaching your children the importance of financial responsibility while your children are young, as well as the difference between “want” and “need.” Here are a few ways on how to educate your children in the matters of money, and prepare them to be financially responsible adults:

Specifically, teaching your children how to manage their money—from earning to saving, to budgeting and spending—is an important step to prepare them to be financially responsible. For some great ideas on how to teach your kids about money, check out our guide below.

Let them earn money

There’s nothing like practical experience to drive home a point. Provide your child with an allowance that is earned by doing household chores. This teaches him/her to associate work with money and learn the value of the dollar, as they invest time and energy in order to earn the allowance.

However, don’t reward your children with money for good performance in school and extracurricular activities—they should be motivated to achieve for reasons other than cash in those arenas. Additionally, don’t use an allowance as a means to discourage bad behavior, as you want your children to learn to behave properly, regardless of whether or not there’s money involved.

When your children get older, allow them to take on traditional (or nontraditional) jobs available to pre-teens and teenagers. Babysitting, tutoring, mowing the lawn and working part-time oddball jobs all offer excellent early work experience for adolescents.

Track spending and develop budgets

Once your children are earning money, have them keep a diary of their spending for a few weeks. By having them write down every penny they spend, they develop a better understanding of where their money is going and how quickly the money can be spent.

For older children with larger “incomes,” help them develop budgets after they’ve figured out where they spend their money. Teach them how to look at their finances in a realistic manner—if their spending skews heavily towards frivolous items, remind them that normal household expenses, like rent and food, would prevent them from putting a large percentage towards entertainment.

Set a savings goal

With younger children, encourage them to save by establishing a goal. Once the goal is reached, allow your children to use that money to spend it on a larger item they want to buy. Using calendars, charts and fun stickers, you can even turn the savings goal into a fun game or a competition between siblings to see who can reach their goal first.

Older children are likely to have bigger prize items, like a car or a trip. Have them set up a savings account and consider a “savings match” plan to encourage them to save extra money. Not only does this incentivize saving money toward a goal, but it also gives your children a hint of the effectiveness of company 401K matching programs.

Use games to make the process fun

Tips For Teaching Kids The Value of Saving MoneyGames are easy ways to sneak in money management lessons and make the experience more entertaining and enjoyable. Whether you choose old school board games, like Monopoly or Life, or use video games or online sites children will enjoy financial lessons much more in the context of a game.

Teaching your children how to manage their money—from earning to saving, to budgeting and spending—is an important step to prepare them to be financially responsible. These early valuable lessons can help them save for large purchases like a house and help them avoid the credit card trap and stay debt free. As children start to understand and appreciate the concept of money, they can be introduced to the idea of lingering debt versus financial freedom. Although there are organizations set up to help people who struggle with finances, these can be avoided altogether by learning to be money-wise at a young age. By teaching your children money management skills, you will help ensure a more secure future for them.